If the KTEWU is telling teachers to hang banners and to send letters to parents, it’s probably going to have its members teach that information to students. One KTEWU member who teaches at an elementary school in Incheon showed a video tape of a cow suffering from BSE, which caused a child to have nightmares. Another unionized teacher at an elementary school in Ilsan, Gyeonggi Province, made pickets reading “Lee Myung-bak Out” and had its students re-enact a candlelight protest in class.

The anti-U.S. beef demonstrations have long turned into a political protest. The People’s Association for Measures Against Mad Cow Disease has come out with the slogan “Oust the Regime.” At the candlelight protests, flyers are being passed out that call for the ouster of President Lee Myung-bak, who is described as refusing to renegotiate the U.S. beef accord to protect the interests of capitalists. The KTEWU is trying to bring this movement into schools.

It said the threat of mad cow disease involves the rights of students to health and to life. The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions held a general strike based on its view that eating U.S. beef infected with mad cow disease endangers the health of workers, thereby hurting productivity. But nobody believes the KCTU launched a general strike because it is genuinely concerned about the health of workers. The aim is to topple the government. The KTEWU’s intention is probably no different.

A majority of students follow what their teachers tell them. The intention of unionized teachers is to inject their political views into the minds of students. And brainwashed students then participate in candlelight protests and tell the president to eat American beef, while junior high school students throw W100 (US$1=W1,045) coins at riot police, calling them beggars. What kind of a place does the KTEWU want this country to become by educating students this way?

The head of education for Seoul made comments on May 7 suggesting that unionized teachers played a pivotal role in getting students to participate in candlelight vigils. A KTEWU spokesman responded by saying its teachers had nothing to do with that and do not intend to get involved. The union even demanded evidence to prove the superintendent’s claims. The denial stemmed from the sense at the time that its image could be tarnished if people found out teachers were inciting students to join the vigils. But now, the KTEWU is trying to turn schools into venues of protest to topple the government. And it intends to use our children to achieve this purpose.